“Back! I reckon I’ll go in first!” bellowed Bindloss. “It’s my house, and I reckon it’s up to me to go in ahead. Boys, get behind me with the lights so they don’t get in my eyes. You Overlanders keep out of range in case there should be some scrapping. No telling what we might meet in there.” Bindloss with drawn weapon, Two-gun Pete at his side, strode up and kicked in the remnants of the front door of his home. As the door went down both men leaped lightly to one side, fearing an ambush.
A dead silence followed.
“Lights here!” commanded Bindloss, stepping in with revolver thrust before him.
Nothing happening, cowpunchers and Overlanders crowded in. They found the old rancher standing with a dazed expression on his face.
“Gosh a-mighty!” he muttered over and over. “What’s happened?”
It was then that the Overlanders discovered the two bound men, and then Hippy at some little distance from them, stretched out on his face, one hand still grasping his revolver.
“Hippy!” It was a wailing cry from Nora as she threw herself down beside him. “He’s dead! He’s dead! They’ve killed him!” Nora threw both arms about her husband and tried to turn him over, but he was a dead weight and she failed.
Tom did it for her, the cowpunchers during all this time standing with gaping mouths as dazed as was their employer.
Grace and Elfreda were at Hippy’s side in an instant, and it was Elfreda who discovered that he was not dead.
“Light here, please,” requested Miss Briggs in a tone so calm that it steadied the others of the party. “Look at this, will you?” she added. “A bullet has ripped the bandage from his head, and torn open the stitches that I put in Hippy’s scalp.”